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In general local government employees are hardworking, dedicated bunch who make sure that work is delivered on time and take responsibility when work is not up to standard or there are delays.

However, there are occasions when this is not the case and when the member of staff in question seeks to find a high quality excuse. Some of those excuses are marvellous in their originality and local government specificity. With that in mind we decided to put together the We Love Local Government top 24 excuses (in no particular order) for not doing what you should have.

If you have others you’d like to add below please add them below… We’d love to hear from you!

1.I’m awaiting comments

2.My printer jammed

3.I need to speak to X, they are on holiday until X (when they are back someone else will be on holiday… An excuse for all seasons)

4.I'm catching up on my 500 (insert huge number to prove how busy I am) emails. You aren't a priority today.

5.I’m just waiting on comments.

6.Didn’t want to commit anything to paper because of political sensitivity

7.I can't see which policy this comes from, perhaps you could find it for me

8.I can't email a Cllr without approval from my Director

9.I've been off sick (can be used for up to a fortnight after bout of sickness)

10.I sent an e-mail and never heard back; what more could I do?

11.I definitely sent the e-mail (checks outbox)… Oh, seems it didn’t send due to my inbox being overfull.

12.I definitely sent it. Oh, wait, there it is in my drafts folder

13.Maths, and the money stuff, is not my strong suit so I left that bit out

14.There seems to be a 'bug' in the system.

15.So sorry, I've been super busy recently (I’m so busy, and important, I couldn’t even come up with a decent excuse… THAT is how busy I am!)

16.It hasn't yet been signed off by my manager (/God)

17.Well because of the Olympics we haven't yet had ….. (still used now; I guess that’s what they call legacy!)

18.You know what Council ICT is like, the computers broke down and I just couldn't work out what was wrong.

19.We don’t have the funding at the moment (Translation; I could probably find the funding, but even if I had it in the form of a pile of cash in front of me I wouldn’t give it to you)

20.I’m struggling to find the correct report template.

21.The booking system is playing up; I’ve called IT and they said they were working on it.

Yesterday something major happened which shook the roots of a long standing institution. The head of a monolithic system with global reach set out their vision for the immediate future which will no doubt have a lasting impact across the country and be greeted with joy by some and disgust from others.

Oh, and the Queen opened parliament too.

Yes, for only the second time Sir Alex Ferguson announced his intention to retire at the end of the season, and you know what? I think he means it this time. Unlike in 2003 he has now achieved all he wanted to and leaves his club Manchester United with a future filled with potential. It's been a turbulent career, full of highs and lows, so here I present just a few of the lessons he has taught me which I think relate in some way or another to local government.

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